Basketball was first introduced to Japan as Ishigawa Genzaburo played basketball for the first time at Springfield College when it was first created. The Japanese Basketball Association was established in 1931, and in 5 years time, the Japanese national team attended the Berlin Olympics in 1936. However, they have not played a significant role in Asia as a leader in basketball as they received the least support from their government. The players are rather small and weak compared to other Asian nations' players. Thus, there position in Asia as a participant for basketball has been in a steady decrease (Naver).
Situation and Problems
Japan used to be one of the leading countries in Asia for basketball. However, unlike Korea and China, the sport basketball failed to earn interest from the citizens as they were more focused on soccer and baseball. Thus, not much support and development was done to the sport in Japan. Currently there is the JBL (Japanese Basketball League) with eight teams playing 35 games per season, and bj-league with 52 games and 12 teams. While Korea only has 10 teams in the league, Korea has much better outcomes and standings in international level. Although the match between bj-league champs and KBL champs are always near a tie, it is merely because Japanese league teams have two foreign players with higher salary playing in the league. Just like Korea, they have heavy reliance to foreign players in their games, making the national team weak.
Another problem they have is that the JBA is too conservative. Japanese people know that their national team has not done any significant placements in tournaments, but their roster stays nearly the same all the time. It is because the JBA does not allow bj-league players to even tryout for the national team. They are not even offered a single change to scrimmage with JBL players. If we do the math, there are about 100 players in the bj-league, and they play 17 more regular season games each season. That is a significant difference in experience. For example, Japanese player Matsui in the bj-league has long experience in the NCAA (105 games), which could bring a fresh air to the the national team along with other members from the league (Odeven).
Tabuse Yuta @ Phoenix Suns
Solutions
The simplest way would be allowing bj-league players to prove themselves against their JBL counterparts. If they are both Japanese, then I do not think that bj-league is inferior to JBL. Also, it is obvious that bigger the pool, more likely it is to pick better players. If we take a look at China’s case, China’s huge population has allowed the system to look for children with talent at a young age. Thus, it might bring out similar effects to Japan too. In addition, a match between the champs of each league would be beneficial. At a state where there is almost no national interest to Japan, a match to figure out the national winner might be able to bring out some interest among people as some people in Japan at least follow the NBA (Odeven).
Also, making a star player might be a good choice. In Korea, the fact that Ha Seung Jin made it to the NBA for a short period of time was sensational as Asian people thought basketball was for African Americans or Caucasian Americans. In China, Yao Ming’s deeds in the NBA has brought national attention to basketball, officially turning it into a national sport with a huge market for brands like Nike and Adidas. Japan has Tabuse Yuta, a former Phoenix Suns player who is part of the national team. He has been knocking the door for the NBA recently, but his short height and lack of shooting ability has been stopping him. Just like Korea, Japan should look for a way to develop issue and star players in their league and seek for a way to possibly send them to Europe Leagues.
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Japanese Basketball
Brief History
Basketball was first introduced to Japan as Ishigawa Genzaburo played basketball for the first time at Springfield College when it was first created. The Japanese Basketball Association was established in 1931, and in 5 years time, the Japanese national team attended the Berlin Olympics in 1936. However, they have not played a significant role in Asia as a leader in basketball as they received the least support from their government. The players are rather small and weak compared to other Asian nations' players. Thus, there position in Asia as a participant for basketball has been in a steady decrease (Naver).Situation and Problems
Japan used to be one of the leading countries in Asia for basketball. However, unlike Korea and China, the sport basketball failed to earn interest from the citizens as they were more focused on soccer and baseball. Thus, not much support and development was done to the sport in Japan. Currently there is the JBL (Japanese Basketball League) with eight teams playing 35 games per season, and bj-league with 52 games and 12 teams. While Korea only has 10 teams in the league, Korea has much better outcomes and standings in international level. Although the match between bj-league champs and KBL champs are always near a tie, it is merely because Japanese league teams have two foreign players with higher salary playing in the league. Just like Korea, they have heavy reliance to foreign players in their games, making the national team weak.
Another problem they have is that the JBA is too conservative. Japanese people know that their national team has not done any significant placements in tournaments, but their roster stays nearly the same all the time. It is because the JBA does not allow bj-league players to even tryout for the national team. They are not even offered a single change to scrimmage with JBL players. If we do the math, there are about 100 players in the bj-league, and they play 17 more regular season games each season. That is a significant difference in experience. For example, Japanese player Matsui in the bj-league has long experience in the NCAA (105 games), which could bring a fresh air to the the national team along with other members from the league (Odeven).
Solutions
The simplest way would be allowing bj-league players to prove themselves against their JBL counterparts. If they are both Japanese, then I do not think that bj-league is inferior to JBL. Also, it is obvious that bigger the pool, more likely it is to pick better players. If we take a look at China’s case, China’s huge population has allowed the system to look for children with talent at a young age. Thus, it might bring out similar effects to Japan too. In addition, a match between the champs of each league would be beneficial. At a state where there is almost no national interest to Japan, a match to figure out the national winner might be able to bring out some interest among people as some people in Japan at least follow the NBA (Odeven).
Also, making a star player might be a good choice. In Korea, the fact that Ha Seung Jin made it to the NBA for a short period of time was sensational as Asian people thought basketball was for African Americans or Caucasian Americans. In China, Yao Ming’s deeds in the NBA has brought national attention to basketball, officially turning it into a national sport with a huge market for brands like Nike and Adidas. Japan has Tabuse Yuta, a former Phoenix Suns player who is part of the national team. He has been knocking the door for the NBA recently, but his short height and lack of shooting ability has been stopping him. Just like Korea, Japan should look for a way to develop issue and star players in their league and seek for a way to possibly send them to Europe Leagues.
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